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It has been a quarter of a century since Herman Goldstein, then an executive for Sun Chemical (now Sequa), developed the fabric treatment that launched the permanent-press revolution. Today, few people remember that the original durable-press garments--unconditionally guaranteed pants--were made of 100% cotton.
"The pants were a tremendous commercial success, but after the program was on the market for several months, the garment maker called me up and said we were in trouble," recalls Goldstein, now a Chester, S.C.-based consultant.
"He said, 'The public loves these pants, but we're getting 20% to 25% returns because they are falling apart.' Nobody was asking for their money back. They just wanted another pair of pants."
The problem was solved, of course, by applying the process to blended fabrics. The cotton fibers reacted to chemical treatment while polyester provided durability. "From then on, the concept of durable-press pants and sheets and everything else -- including men's shirts -- took off like a skyrocket," Goldstein says, adding that cotton use plummeted. "This was ironic, because we introduced this to help cotton stave o the encroachment of polyester."
In the 1980s, resurgent cotton and the Occupational Safety and Health and Administration's crackdown on carcinogenic formaldehyde (a key chemical in the process) killed permanent press and consigned the huge curing ovens to the trash heaps. However, history, as the cliche goes, repeats. Today, chemical vats once again bubble with stiffening resins, and baking tunnels fire away. Treatment of 100% cotton has enjoyed tremendous market success with a plethora of wrinkle-resistant casual slacks and jeans.
Unfortunately, even with different chemicals, the same fiber-weakening limitations that originally doomed 100% cotton permanent press pants still apply --only carefully limiting resin amounts and applying it to pant-weight fabrics prevents weakening wrinkle-resistant cotton fibers to the point that the garment falls apart. That means men's 100% cotton shirts, until now, have been excluded from wrinkle-resistant treatment.
"Shirts of 3 oz. to 4 oz. cotton couldn't stand the treatment," Goldstein explains. "The lighter-weight fabrics make it difficult to apply the chemicals in high enough concentration to make it worthwhile to the consumer."
That hasn't stopped the shirt makers from trying, and succeeding to some extent. "All of the major shirt companies have been working furiously to...